Usually it’s a priest, a rabbi and a minister who launch a joke. But when Army General Marty Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke to the Air Force Association Wednesday, he opened up with an airman, a sailor …

Army General Martin Dempsey’s C-17’s fuselage got pockmarked by shrapnel from some overnight shelling while it was parked outside on the tarmac at Afghanistan’s Bagram air base north of Kabul. A couple of airmen were …

While many in Washington assume that Congress will solve sequestration by the end of the year–the problem Congress created when the Super Committee failed–recent comments by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) indicate …

TOKYO – When U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta arrives in Singapore this week to talk about containing China – and that’s really what this trip is all about — he’ll find plenty of support from friends in the region. …

Last night, President Obama opened his State of the Union address by referencing the sacrifices and courage of America’s military personnel as they return home from combat. The President’s rhetoric was moving, but unfortunately, words are simply words and have not been fully backed up with action that supports America’s heroes.

TIME has just posted photographs of some of Washington’s most famous desks, past and present. This one caught our eye: it’s the desk of Adm. Mike Mullen, when was serving as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “The USELESS stamp was all in fun…mostly,” says Navy Capt. John Kirby, Mullen’s long-time spokesman. “He wanted it …

The spectacle now infecting the Pentagon would be humorous, if it weren’t so serious. The notion that the military can cut $450 billion out of its next-decade budget of something like $7 trillion – but not a penny more – suggests an (artillery) shell game’s afoot.

Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee today, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta directly challenged the Congressional “Super Committee” to “do the right thing.” In Panetta’s view, the “right thing” is to solve the debt crisis by going after the drivers of America’s bulging debt. That would be the Big 3 …

Adm. Mike Mullen turns over the chairmanship of the Joint Chiefs on Friday, and the nation is poorer for his departure. As a surface warfare officer, Mullen knew what it meant to take the helm. After years of service in the middle of the ocean — where Navy regulations stipulate that a captain’s responsibility is “absolute” and his …